Woodstock to spread peace and love in Korea
For the first time, legendary music festival Woodstock will be in Korea. While the lineup has not been fully revealed, about 30 performances are expected to occur. Read more about the festival here!
The Little Cellist: 11-year-old prodigy takes First Prize
At the 11th International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians in Russia, 11-year old Korean cellist Kim Jung-a won first prize. There were a total of 128 contestants from 14 countries who participated in the piano, violin, and cello categories this year. Discover more about their achievement here!
BTS reclaims Billboard: And other popular K-pop music
Billboard 200 has a number of K-pop groups topping the charts, but the surprise hit is BTS reentering with a song from 2017. Read more about their unstoppable success and the latest K-pop groups with highly anticipated releases here!
The K-pop Comeback: Returning from Military Service
With mandatory military service stopping many of the top K-pop idol’s activities, members from EXO, SHINee, and others will be finishing their service and coming back to entertainment this year to much excitment and hype. Learn more about when your favorite K-pop stars will be back here!
Top Movies to Watch for Lunar New Year
Here’s a list of the top 16 global movies to keep you busy this Lunar New year. No matter what kind of genre you're interested in, you'll find something you like here! Check this list out to make picking something for movie night easy.
Longcations: Escaping to Vietnam
760,000 South Koreans travelled to Vietnam in 2022. This is in part due to the growing popularity of "longcations", or trips where the traveler takes a long-term slow-paced vacation. Discover more about longcations and why Vietnam offers a great escape here!
Kkondaes at Work: GenZ and Millennials Battle at the Office
"MZ Office", a new segment on SNL Korea, sheds light on passive aggressive confrontations among millennials and Gen Z in the office. The sketch series uses the term "kkondae" which normally refers to baby boomers. However, it has evolved to include all age groups. Learn more about the show here!
The American Bansang Experience
Chef Kim Sea-kyeong recently opened his restaurant Daon Bansang in Seoul which blends the bansang experiance with Western cuisine. Bansang is a traditional Korean dining method that consists of different dishes for one person. Read more about his career here!
Healthy Gamer: Breaking Gaming Addiction
The best antidote to the digital addiction is self-understanding according to Harvard-trained psychiatrist Alok Kanojia. He has been using Twitch, a livestreaming platform, to talk to people about their mental health. Read more about gaming and digital addiction here!
The Eco City: One Stop Shop Farming
A South Korean agricultural corporation Eco Farm City has developed what it calls "KDS convergence farming". This type of farming systematizes the cultivation, production, processing, manufacture, sales, and retail process of farming into a collective "one-stop system". Learn more about KDS farming here!
Cursed Bunny and other Popular K-Books
Translated literary works won or were nominated for four awards outside of Korea this year. More than 150 works in 27 languages were published overseas and they showed growing diversification of genres from science fiction to fantasy and mystery. Discover more about the growing popularity of Korean literature here!
The Newly Minted: How Much the Wealthy Really Earn
The Korean Wealth Report defined being wealthy as having over 1 billion won in financial assets. Minimum seed money for accumulating wealth was 820 million won ($630,000) by the age of 42. Of that group, 44.8 percent said they considered themselves to be wealthy. Read more here!
Painting With Music: The Visual Pianist
Pianist Kim Su Yeon is the first Asian winner of the Concours Musical International de Montréal. The Salzburg-based pianist will meet local audiences through a five-concert series. Read more about her work and upcoming debut album here!
All-In-One Makeover Photo Studios for Everyone
Photo studios are evolving into one-stop beauty shops offering makeovers and photo shoots. Despite the high cost, makeover photo shoots deliver what young generations want. Learn more about these photo studios here!
Men of Plastic: How the K-beauty Business Began
Veteran Korean-American actor Don Lee returns in his new film “Men of Plastic” which is about the rise of the K-beauty business. Lee plays Dae-kook, a plastic surgeon who starts a business with Ji-woo (Jung Kyoung-ho). Read more about the film here!
Tackling Video Game Addiction
As video games balloon in popularity, video game addiction becomes more and more of a real problem. Healthy Gamer is an organization that aims to tackle the problem that many people now face. Read more here!
Netflix-based Tours Open in Korea
The Korea Tourism Organization will open free tours to foreigners that go through locations inspired by their successful Netflix show “Korea No. 1”. Click the link to see what destinations you may be able to go to.
Heart of a Moon Jar: Connecting through Art
Follow Korean artist Kang Ik-joong as he explains his creative inspiration for his latest exhibition “The Moon is Rising” and his view on the role of an artist. Learn more about his artwork here!
Shamanism Without Prejudice
Jeong Ho-geun is a 58-year-old veteran actor, who put his acting career on hiatus to pursue the career of a shaman. He is currently fighting the prejudice of shamanism being considered a bad custom that should be eradicated. Discover more about him here!
Hanbok Culture Week and the Style in Tradition
The nationwide hanbok festival is held in the third week of October each year. Hanbok Culture Week kicks off in Seoul with an exhibition of costumes worn by the cast of Netflix's "Kingdom". Visitors can try on different hanbok and take photos or shoot K-pop content at the HiKR Lounge. Learn more about the festival here!
A Bittersweet End for Disney+
Steaming service Disney+’s reality show, "The Zone: Survival Mission," remained on the Korean top 10 chart since its first entry. This show captured audience attention but failed to leave a mark on international audiences. Read more about the future of Korean streaming here!
Respecting Life on Canvas: Kim Byung-Jong
Kim Byung-jong's paintings are an homage to the preciousness of life. He was drawn to the theme of life in the 1990s following a serious accident that nearly took his life. An exhibition commemorating Kim's artistic career opened at the Namwon Museum. Discover more about Kim here!
K-Drama romance “Ditto” presents the future of first love
"Ditto" is a remake of a 2000's hit romance sci-fi film of the same title. Yeo Jin-goo and Kim Hye-yoon star as university student Yong and Han-sol respectively. While director Yeo Dong-bin felt pressure from the success of the original film, she chose to write and direct the project because of the power of the original source material. Discover more about the film here!
Red bean, a Korean Cultural Staple, Brings Comfort in Modern Kitchen & Lives
On Dongji, be sure to eat patjuk, at the Farmer's Market Patjib in southern Seoul. This specialty food is a traditional South Korean porridge made using red beans grown on a farm in Yeongwol County, Gangwon Province. Read more about these red beans here!
Yang Hae-gue, Korean Contemporary Artist, Internationally Recognized in Art Compass
Korean installation artist Yang Hae-gue ranks 93rd on The Kunstkompass’s annual top 100 artists list. She won the 13th Benesse Prize for her moving sculptures at this year’s Singapore Biennale. Discover more about her and her work here!
Louis Vuitton Fashion House Collabs with Korean Artists
Korean artist Park Seo-bo's seminal Ecriture painting has been turned into one of Louis Vuitton's iconic Capucines bags. Park is the first Korean artist to collaborate with the French luxury brand for the Artycapucines collection. To learn more about this painting, keep reading!
How Fiction Re-Imagines a Royal Mystery
The upcoming thriller "The Owl" adds imagination to historical record about Crown Prince Sohyeon's suspicious death. In the movie, Kyeong-soo, played by Ryu Jun-yeol, is a day-blind acupuncturist in the palace that witnesses the Crown Prince’s death. Read more about the film here!
MetaFashion in Your Digital Wardrobe
South Korean designers are dipping their toes into the world of metafashion, with the government launching its first-ever digital wardrobe. 30 outfits are planned to be completed with model line-up being A-list actress Han Sun-hwa, singer Ravi, and model Jaesi. Read more here!
An exploration into the wide world of Korea’s budding coffee scene
Three Korea coffee aficionados published a guidebook of 82 must-visit Korean cafes. The guidebook contains information on the cafes' locations, operating hours, signature items as well as stories of the people who built and nurtured the specialty coffee cafes. Read more here!
Get your Sing On in 'Cono' Coin Singing Rooms
Coin singing rooms are smaller karaoke gatherings where you play for about 30 minutes compared to the hours spent at regular Korean karaoke. They are becoming ever popular with younger generations in the aftermath of COVID-19 regulation relaxation. Read more about coin singing rooms here!
The MTIB Craze in Korea
Have you gotten a job based on a personality test? Like zodiac signs and blood type, MBTI types are a growing fad in Korea to learn more about a person without asking questions. Read more to find out how MBTI types are impacting people’s lives.
From eggs to stocks: Chuseok Gifts Evolve
Think of your favorite presents to get growing up. They probably weren’t stocks and bonds. Korea’s Chuseok is a gift giving holiday that has experienced a staggering amount of growth since the 1970’s. Learn more about the different gift giving trends throughout the years.
Couple Aesthetics
Take fashion to the next level with the new matching trend. Couples are now not only planning their dates, but their outfits together for a more personalized look. What do you think about this trend? Would you try it yourself with your friends or significant other?
Seoul opens space dedicated to K-pop dance covers
You can now be in your own kpop music video with this Seoul studio. HiKR is a studio that has rooms dedicated to recreating some of the most popular kpop music video backgrounds where visitors can make their own content. Read more about what artists are featured here.
LG Plans boosts output with robots
LG continues to be a pioneer in AI and robots in the workplace with robots taking over tasks too dangerous for humans or helping to make the worker’s jobs easier. However, there has been some pushback on if the robots will eventually take people’s jobs. Read more about the latest findings here.
Blind: App that has everyone talking at work
Problems at work? Talk about it online! Blind is a South Korean-born messaging app where users can anonymously speak about problems and concerns they have without worrying about facing repercussions from management. Learn more about how this app is positioning itself for the US market
